Twelve-year-old Seymour Hope and his ghostly "mother" Olive go to Scotland to claim a castle inherited from Ignatius Grumply's punster uncle, Ian, but while they tend an aged tortoise and face an unscrupulous developer, Iggie deals with Ian's ghost and aninept insurance agent.
Eleven-year-old Tabitha Crum, whose parents were just about to abandon her, is invited to the country estate of a wealthy countess along with five other children and told that one of them will become her heir.